Our new logo, as well as our refurbished name, celebrates our 10 years in the tea biz. (That's 85 in tea industry years.)

The bud is back, baby. The bud is back.

What? Oh – maybe you didn’t realize that a couple of years ago we changed our name from “two leaves and a bud tea company” to “two leaves tea company.” And if you weren’t aware of that, go about your business, because technically to you, nothing’s changing.

To the rest of you: We’re changing it back! You spoke, we listened, and we agree with you. In an attempt to streamline and simplify our name, we removed a key part of our personality. And in this small company, our personality is who we are.

We took to Facebook this week to chat about “and a bud” with our fans, who are a thoughtful bunch. And surprise, surprise ... Gail Bull nailed it. She said, "'Two Leaves and a Bud’ has a certain rebellious charm to it. It seems to be saying, ‘yeah, our tea company's name is longer than most, but we aren't just any other tea company!’ Which is absolutely true.”

Gail, we’re pumping our fists at our desks. You totally get it.

As we say around here, “We take tea personally.”

(Inspirational music is swelling in the background as you read this next part.)

To us, this is more than a business — it’s personal. Our company is all about the tea. We’re not about wacky flavors, fancy packaging, or the latest fad being hyped in this industry. We make tea we love to drink because we know you tea lovers are addicted to our very high standards. And you guys, just like us, are full of personality.

If anyone can handle a name that’s nine syllables long and might start a conversation about tea, it’s you. Here’s how that conversation might go:

Friend/coworker/relative/neighbor: Hey, what’s that you’ve got there in your travel mug? I see you with it every day.

You: It’s my two leaves and a bud. I’m totally addicted.

Them: Two leaves and a what?

You: It’s tea. No wait, let me clarify — it’s the best tea. The highest quality tea in the world comes from the top two leaves and a bud of the tea plant.

Them: Whoa. You seem to know a lot about tea. You’re kind of awesome.

You <blushing graciously>: Here – I’ll give you a sachet. I realize I sound like a total tea dork, but if you try this, you’ll see what I’m getting at.

… and so on.

It’s a long name, and yeah, a bit clunky. But it’s also an accurate name … and the closest we can get to announcing who we are without wearing shirts that say “Hey – we’re resolute tea nerds.” (Although we’d totally wear those shirts.)

See? Two leaves and a bud!

Because as you told your friend in an imaginary conversation (is this getting weird?), “two leaves and a bud” references the part of the camellia sinensis plant that makes up our tea. And a company’s name is more than factual — it’s emotional. Facebook friend Annie Bryant said,

“Two Leaves and a Bud was a fun name. Two Leaves seems like the company is growing up and becoming more serious. I liked the Bud.”

Whoa. That made us think. Our company is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year! You could say we are growing up. Ah, those halcyon days back in 2004, when we had four employees instead of 11. But you can't force us to be more serious. Our anniversary this year will come with a new logo (see above), a redesigned website and a packaging refresh, but we'll hang on to our sense of fun with a death grip.

So in that spirit, we say yeah, we made an error of judgment, and don’t want to screw with your heads. We find an easy laugh is the best policy. Check out this handy infographic listing some reasons why we may have decided to bring back the "bud":

A happy Chinese New Year to you! Here at two leaves™, we couldn't have been more delighted when, on the first day of the Chinese New Year, Feb. 10, our own Facebook page ticker clicked over to 10,000 fans. 10,000! Facebook may seem a little silly to some (where else on the planet can you find so many photos of cute and grumpy kittens, political propaganda, embarrassing high school photos and my mother all at the same time?), but here at two leaves™, we consider it a great way of communicating with you.

We love getting to know our fans, and how you’re never afraid to talk back to us, whether it’s to praise us to the heavens (please, never stop doing that), or to just hit the thumbs up for one of our posts. We get a fair share of honest questions and complaints on that page, and we try to respond to every one! After all, we’re a small company, and when you’re standing in the tea aisle, looking slightly befuddled at the huge tea selection and wondering which box to take home, we like to think our boxes and our voice speaks to you. Not in that creepy “voice in your head” way, but in a friendly, informed, “hey, this company cares and is kinda cool” way.

But I’m getting far off course from my main point: Chinese New Year! The year of the Snake just started. It’s the sixth sign of the 12-animal Chinese Zodiac, and is the most “enigmatic, intuitive, introspective, refined and collected” of the signs, according to what I could find online.

“Hey,” I started thinking, “while I’m sure I could craft a way to connect each sign of the Chinese Zodiac to tea, this one seems particularly appropriate. Think about it:

Enigmatic: Tea is something that delights us, and yet it’s just made out of leaves that have been steeped in water. How can something be so simple and yet bring us such joy? Enigmatic, indeed.

Intuitive: I always say, “When in doubt, brew a cup of tea.” (Actually, I don’t always say that, but I probably should.) Stressed out? Tea. Need a pick-me-up? Tea. Connecting with a friend? Tea. Follow your intuition to a great cup of tea.

Introspective: Personally, I think it’s hard not to have a moment or two of quiet introspection when you’re sitting in front of a steaming tea cup. Who’s with me?

Refined: Similarly, it’s difficult to not feel a bit cultured and elegant while sipping tea.

Collected: Tea is calming. Take a minute and collect yourself over a cup of tea. Enough said.

Also, if you lay your sachet of tea out on the table, you can arrange the string and tag so it looks like a snake. That has to count for something, right? Thanks for humoring me.

Celebrate Chinese New Year with us! Today (Tuesday, Feb. 12) is the very last day of our Chinese New Year sale! Take 20% off all green and white teas by using promo code YearOfSnake at checkout. All of these green and white teas have been grown in China. Coincidence?

As for two leaves™ in the Chinese New Year, we’re looking forward to many more adventures in tea, getting to know our fans, and providing you with the best real, whole leaf tea available. Is there anything from us you’d like to see in the New Year?

In fact, we've always got something brewing (sorry) around here. Recently we mailed out samples of our Açai White Tea to some volunteers we found on Facebook and Twitter, because we want them to tell us if they prefer what's in our current sachets, or if they like a different sample we sent them, since we're considering changing the formula. If you'd like to be a part of our tea tastings in the future, stay tuned to our Facebook page and follow our tweets — pretty soon we'll be trying out new versions of Tropical Goji Green and Orange Sencha, and looking for feedback.

Alpine Berry Herbal Tea — big pieces on the left, and what came out of a current sachet on the right.

This afternoon, Richard was dumping a pile of what looked like potpourri onto a piece of paper — turns out it was actually our Alpine Berry Herbal Tea blend, but a sample with much larger pieces than what typically appears in our sachets. And then he started tasting it against a sachet of Alpine Berry. Typically, when tasting tea you brew it at double strength, so what he ended up with were three cups of tea that had the thick, bright red color of cough syrup. And when we tasted them, boom — they were packed with big berry flavor. (It makes sense — Alpine Berry is air-dried berries and fruits. I'm sitting here eating big pieces of apple out of the larger pieced sample right now. That sounds weird, but they taste good and I'm hungry.)

So, why did he need to taste these against each other? "The bigger pieces would look so pretty in a sachet," Richard said. "We've got the beautiful sachets, so we might as well make use of them." Well, it turns out that he prefers the taste of the Alpine Berry mix in smaller pieces anyway — the smaller pieces have more surface area, so they lend more flavor to the tea.

Also this afternoon I held a blind taste test with Richard to determine if it really matters if you squeeze your tea bag (or rather, sachet) into your mug after steeping. Stay tuned — we'll be writing more about that in the near future, including the results of our blind taste test.

Finally, this last weekend the ESPN Winter X Games were held just up the road from us at Buttermilk Mountain. Marketing manager Bess Hammer went on her own extreme adventure, and coincidentally spotted Richard hiking up the Highland Bowl at Highlands Ski Area on Saturday, so they made the hike together. Überfit Richard took pity on Bess and actually carried her snowboard up to the top of the bowl (the summit is 12,382 feet and not exactly an easy hike). At the top, Richard's friend Kim brought out a thermos and served some steaming Açai White Tea from two leaves and a bud, of course! Here's a great photo of Richard and Bess once they made it to the top on this beautiful, sunny day.

Richard and Bess at the top of the Highland Bowl — two leaves' next staff meeting location, perhaps?